A TRYING POSITION.
I once knew a case where an engineer inadvertently passed a water-tank without filling his tender. He had a heavy train, and was pushing along with a heavy fire, on a severe, frosty night, when every creek and slough by the wayside was lost in heavy ice. Presently his pump stopped working, and he spent some time trying to start it before he discovered that the tender was empty. By the time this fact became known, his boiler-water was low, and a heavy fire kept the steam screaming at the safety-valves. He had no dump-grate, and the fire was too heavy to draw. It seemed a clear case of destroying the fire-box and flues. But he was a man of many resources. First, he tried to get water through the gauge-cock—he had only one gauge—to quench the fire, but found the plan would not work. Then he filled up the fire-box nearly to the crown-sheet with the smallest coal on the tender, and partly smothered the fire. He then partly opened the smoke-box door, and started for the water-station. After getting the engine going, he hooked the reverse-lever in the center, and kept the throttle wide open, to make the most of the steam-supply. He saved his engine.